According to an anonymous tip provided to TG Daily at CES, Asian suppliers are experiencing drastic shortages of 10.1-inch OLED and LCD display screens as Apple buys up all of the available supply. In a separate story, Reuters reports that the case and touchscreen suppliers for the long-rumored Apple tablet are ramping up production.

An anonymous designer told TG reporter Sylvie Barak that his company was "designing a product for a customer and we needed 10 inch screens, but we've been trying for months and can't get one from any of the Asian suppliers... We were told that Apple pre-ordered them all. All 10 inch LCDs, and all 10 inch OLEDs too."

If true, this supply shortfall would tend to substantiate the rumor, which circulated last November, that Apple would release a version of the tablet with a high-end OLED display. OLED - organic light-emitting diode - displays provide color graphics on a screen without requiring a backlight. They use less energy and provide a much sharper picture, and are increasingly popular on devices like the Zune HD and the Google Nexus One phone.

Reuters also reported last week that Taiwanese supplier AVY Precision Technology had been contracted by Apple to provide aluminum casings for the tablet. According to the report, the firm TPK Solutions was tapped to be the supplier for the glass touchscreen panels. Yesterday, MacObserver received a photograph, shown below, that purports to be of the glass screen that will be used on the tablet. It sports openings for what appear to be a speaker and a camera, with the Home button along one side.